By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
Denver Post owner Dean Singleton’s front-page editorial attacking Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter on Sunday appears unprecedented for its name-calling, at least in the newspaper’s recent history.
The editorial criticizing Ritter’s executive order allowing state workers to join unions is only the third front-page editorial in the Post in the past decade.
The Ritter editorial was decidedly more angry and personal in tone than the paper’s call to settle the disputed 2000 presidential election and a 2005 call to temporarily suspend state tax restrictions and rescue the state’s economy by passing Referendum C.
This time, Singleton ordered up an editorial that referred to the governor as “Jimmy Hoffa,” “a toady for labor bosses” and “a bag man for unions.”
“The language used and the placement demonstrate a certain hysteria that stems from Mr. Singleton’s personal dislike of organized labor,” Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said Sunday.
“I think the degree of the personal attacks is a bit surprising for a newspaper of this caliber. To stoop to this level is unbecoming.”
Dreyer said the governor “extended the courtesy” of telling Singleton and Post Editorial Page Editor Dan Haley about the executive order the day before it was issued last Friday.
“It was apparent two minutes into the conversation that Mr. Singleton was not happy,” Dreyer said.
Singleton did not return an emailed request for comment Sunday. In an email, Post Editor Greg Moore said, “I don’t have anything to do with editorials.”
In an interview Sunday, Haley said he wrote the editorial. He called the decision to do so “a collaborative decision between the publisher and myself.” Singleton serves as the Post’s publisher and apparently ordered the editorial placed on the front page.
“The tone reflects how serious his (Ritter’s) decision is,” Haley said. “We think he is in danger of losing (support of) the business community. The business community is vital to his agenda. We think this is a turning point in his administration. We didn’t like the content of the executive order, and we didn’t like how it was done.”
Ritter released his executive order on Friday afternoon via emails sent to reporters.
Haley said the editorial was meant to “initiate some public dialogue.”
Some of that dialogue will be about what some consider the editorial’s cheap shots rather than unions.
A source inside the Post newsroom said that most staff members were not aware of the tenor of Sunday’s editorial and only learned of its placement late Friday afternoon.
“I didn’t have any conversations with anyone about it,” said one staffer who asked to remain anonymous. “I heard Greg tell some people it was going on the front page. All I knew was Dean was pissed off. So pissed off that he put an editorial on the front page. Who does he think he is – Hearst?”
The language in the editorial was so raw that the staffer predicted some distress among people in the newsroom.
“You can be opposed to what the governor does,” he said. “But this name-calling stuff is embarrassing.”
Dreyer agreed that the language was not as professional as an editorial that opposed the governor’s order in the Post’s rival, the Rocky Mountain News.
“It’s fair to criticize the plan and the governor,” Dreyer said.
But, he added, there are ways to disagree without getting personal.
Dreyer took issue not only with the name-calling in the editorial, but with what he said were misrepresentations of fact. The executive order will not, as the editorial states, “drive up the cost of doing business in
The order requires no one to join a union, Dreyer said. It compels no one to pay union dues. The order does not allow workers who choose to join unions to strike. Nor does it let those in unions have binding arbitration of disagreements with the state.
“This is about improving the delivery of services to the public,” Dreyer said.
Critics counter that it is compensation to union supporters by Ritter. The governor vetoed a law during the last session of the General Assembly that would have made it easy to establish unions in the state.
Singleton’s visceral reaction did not surprise journalism scholar John McManus.
McManus, an author and professor, runs a San Francisco-area media watchdog group called GradetheNews.org. McManus says Singleton’s hatred of unions revealed itself in his handling of a series of newspapers he bought recently in the Bay Area.
“He established something called the Alameda News Group for the small papers he owned,” McManus said. “ANG papers were unionized.”
When Singleton purchased the much larger Contra Costa Times, McManus said, Singleton merged the non-unionized Times staff with the ANG to form the East Bay Area News Group.
“Then,” McManus explained, Singleton “said, ‘We now have more non-union than union employees. So we will no longer negotiate with the union because it doesn’t represent a majority of workers.”
So far, that tactic seems to have worked, McManus said.
Whether Singleton’s angry front-page editorial will succeed in taking down Ritter is another matter.
“The governor is an even-keeled, thick-skinned, moderate person,” Dreyer said. “We’re going to focus on what this plan truly is and what it does and doesn’t do.”
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
38 users commented in " Denver Post Owner Skewers Colorado’s Governor in Rare Front-Page Editorial "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAs the spouse of an overworked employee of the State of Colorado, the editorial was an insult. Not just to State employees, who are treated as brainless puppets to be told what to do and they’ll lock-step in place. But, also to the Governor. Like or dislike the man, that’s your right, but to compare him to the likes of Mr. Hoffa and connect him with organized crime is disgusting, if not liable! It’s obvious, the Governor was trying to make up for his huge boo-boo by ignoring the working folks who put him in office in the first place. But he’s certainly NOT twisting arms and/or breaking legs. My husband received a phone call from a woman asking who will be the “representative” from his department in our town. Because, until the night before (Friday) he had no idea what the heck she was talking about, he was able to give a non-answer, but assured her that someone from this area would represent the workers. He said it sounds like the Executve office wishes for the workers to give input on how we can run the state and get this jewel of the West a new shine. Jaded as he’s become, my husband feels that this is a red herring. No matter how much “input” the Governor and his staff receive from the workers, they’ll all be filed in the ol’ “round file”, unless of course it’s to say, “Hey man, you’re doing an awesome job! We love beans, and heck, who needs pesky medications!”
Lord knows we need SOME kind of representation! Because of the genius of TABOR, the state employees, with the exception of the very tip top of the food chain, are 3 years BEHIND in raises, however, the amount we contriubte to health benifits (more like catastrophic care) continues to increase, with the exception of this year, bless them, I do believe we are saving about $100 a month, almost as much as our raise! YAY! I used to think Unions were outdated and not necesary (to which I’m sure my teamster-til-the-end father just flipped over in his grave), but now I’m not so sure. Because they are “State Employees” they do not get the perks or acknowledgment that the same job in the private sector get. Heck, we’d settle for $15 perscriptions (generic or not)! It be nice, too, for those who actually SAVE money for the tax payers get recognition as well. Bottom line, this didn’t belong on the front page, it’s not NEWS. It’s the ranting of a bitter person trying to discredit our Governor. SO I say, sir, do us all a favor, buy yourself a “binkie”, pop it into your mouth, get your favorite blanket and take a NAP. Save the front page AND the editorial pages for things that MATTER! Sheesh! This state and country really need to get a GRIP!
“Haley said he wrote the editorial.”
I call bullshit on that.
Dinky Singleton wrote that editorial. Dan is way more even tempered and a far better writer.
This was Dinky coming unglued.
Thanks, Jim, for giving us the balance that William Dean Singleton apparently believes is not needed. The front page editorial is a perfect example of why newspapers, in general, and the Post, in particular, increasingly make themselves irrelevant in our society. As my letter to the editor some days ago pointed out, it was the Post that continued to endorse Tom Tancredo while criticizing his decision to renege on his promise to run for only three terms, and his insistence on being part of the problem rather than the solution on immigration and other issues. Why on earth would any thinking person take the Post’s advice on anything with an editorial policy such as it follows?
I recall Singleton telling Greg Moore, according to a story in the Post some years ago, that he was prepared to spend the money to make the Post one of the great papers in the country. As I look at the glitzy graphics, the vastly increased tabloid coverage of the glitterati, the loss of veteran staffers (Jim included), and the general shrinkage of the news hole, it becomes obvious that Singleton’s word is no more reliaable than Tancredo’s.
Wow! Now we know where these right-wing based commentaries come from in the Post! When I read this editorial, I was first shocked it was on the front page (albeit a lot of Post crap gets put there rather than news), but more shocked by the language used. It was so obvious the writer was strongly anti-union. The allegations were so crazy you recognized this spin from right wing toadies. Post lost a lot of credibility on this. They need to apologize.
I just sent in my letter to the editor on this unbelievable attack upon the Governor. This is what I wrote:
Schizophrenic Publisher
Does the Denver Post Publisher not read his own paper? From not only hysterically personally attacking Governor Ritter by likening him to a mobster, the Publisher put the so-called “editorial” on the front page of the paper on Sunday with gross mischaracterizations and fanatical predictions of the political future of the Governor, that shows the lack of rationality within the Denver Post.
The so-called “editorial” said Governor Ritter is “forcing collective bargaining on thousands of state employees,” while in the Business Section (pg. 1K) that article on state workers wages stated that “Gov. Bill Ritter signed an executive order Friday allowing ‘employee partnerships,’ which lack binding arbitration clauses and the right to strike found in typical collective-bargaining agreements.” Workers are “allowed” to enter into an employee agreement, rather than the Publisher would have us believe that they are being forced.
From beginning to end, the ad-homonym attacks and misrepresentation of the facts are more like that of the republican response rather than a “credible” newspaper. But what’s more concerning is that the Publisher doesn’t read his own paper to see what has been reported before putting forward his own “editorial” which made the paper look schizophrenic.
Also, Governor Ritter was on the radio this morning, claiming that during previous conversations with Singleton, he had used similar language as used in the Sunday editorial. Dan Haley did not write this alone. I’m canceling my subscription to both DNA papers today. There no longer seems to be any integrity left at either.
As a State Representative (D) Denver, there have been many times i have been at odds with the unions. Most recently, last Session as i was one of three Democrats who voted against the union bill, HB1072. Not because I did not agree, but because I was never included in the decision making process and i don’t care to be told “I have to”. I don’t have to do anything!
However, I feel the editorial was way over the top, nasty to the point of being rude, and showing a lack of respect for the office.
After reading the Executive Order, it seemed to me to be a reasonable solution to the issue.
No strikes and no binding arbitration.
Seems you can’t please everyone!
Rep. Alice Borodkin
Chicken Little — or rather, Chicken Dinky — squawking that Colorado’s sky is falling is beyond laughable. It’s almost as bad as his ol’ Texas buddy-buddy sounding the alarums that if “Amur-cuh” don’t kill them evildoers over there in Eye-Rack, they’ll follow our heroes home to turr-ize us where we live.
Give me a break. The FRONT page. I thought Sunday’s funny pages were way in back with the pile of ad inserts.
What an excellent opportunity for all to see the upshot of allowing (usually right-wing) corporate interests to control vast sectors of the media. I have no doubt that Rupert Murdoch does the same kind of tampering. The language was so shockingly unfair and disparaging to Gov. Ritter, that a boomerang effect took place: Dean Singleton with his pants down, on the run!
The POST editorial does have a Haymarket hysteria about it. Thanks for your reply.
I think it’s time to cancel my subscription to the Denver Post
It was a great editorial that rang true to independents and business owners throughout the state.
The problem is that few employers will comment for attribution. They’re afraid of becoming targets of union organizers and thugs.
I am awfully tempted to cancel my subscription. Not because they disagree with my position, they have always done plenty of that, but because they are so nasty about it. Of course, I should have cancelled when they fired Jim. Then again, I can’t stand the thought of reading USA Today on my way to work.
What are you talking about, Another skeptic? First off the governors order applies only to state employees. It doesn’t affect one private industry employee. Second, what union thugs? This isn’t the early 20th century where unions and industry barons are engaged in open war. I have never heard of one business in Colorado get physically intimidated by “union thugs”. You either read to much right wing propaganda, or are living in a bygone era.
[…] and today over a front page editorial on the Sunday Denver Post. I’ll let former Denver Post columnist Jim Spencer explain further: Denver Post owner Dean Singleton’s front-page editorial attacking Colorado Gov. […]
Ritter is thick skinned. How many wrongful
public police executions did he give his
blessing? This stuff is just more fleecing
of the taxpayer and corruption. He
wouldn’t even blink on this small stuff.
This guy’s way worse than King Roy.
Maybe I’ll subscribe to the Post, ten
times or twenty times.
By the way I found State Rep Alice’s
attitude peculiar for someone living
in this state. Oh, wait a minute I forgot
she’s running things from the statehouse.
That’s the place where mandates are forced
on the people constantly. Colorado-the
state that BANS! and rules not by and
for the people but how- THEY SEE BEST.
Her words: I don’t have to do ANYTHING!
That’s the Democratic power elite speaking.
That’s all we need in this state and
country is more of THAT elitist CRAP!
By the way, Momma T. Do YOU work in
the private sector? I don’t know if
you’ve checked lately but their are NO
guarantees atall in the private sector.
If similar jobs (to those state jobs)
were so lucretive state employees would
be stampeded toward the private sector
and away from their guaranteed for life
state jobs. I found your comments about
life as an employee of the state
interesting to say the least. You made
a great point, it WAS the state employees
voting in blocks who elected Ritter AND
Passed the biggest tax increase in state
history Referendum C. Now the state
needs more money and more money and more
money. Before the so called economic
collapse which occured in 2000 which
“necessitated” the increases Ref C allowed
I believe we had 80,0000 public employeed
the pay and benefits of whom add up to
about HALF the state budget. After the
“Downsizing” of State workers to make up
for budget shortfalls (that would be 500
rank and file workers at motor vehicle)
(remind me is that a public SERVICE???)
It’s nothing more than a cash register for
the state.) Anyway, after the down sizing
of state employees we STILL had 80,000
state employees. THEY CAN’T BE FIRED!!!
The taxpayers are stuck with them for
ever. Thank GOD and Doug Bruce for TABOR.
Or we’d be Bankrupt as a state. I like
how Jim Spencer says “WE raised taxes to
save the state economy” Where does this
silliness come from? Obviously, people
who have never taken Econ 101, Accounting
or Finance 101 to be sure. By the way,
many if not most private sector jobs
don’t offer health insurance. At all.
Everyone in this country owes much to labor unions. If you get weekends off thank you unions, If you work a 8 hr. day thank the unions, if you have safety on the job thank the unions, if your child goes to public schools thank the unions.
This tiny morsel thrown to State employees is much to do about nothing
Perhaps still more here than meets the eye. Behind the simple jokes and goofy grin, Dick Wadhams is a clever and ruthless spinmeister, having learned, I believe, at the elbow of the late Lee Atwater, an architect of the ultra-conservative ’80s “surge” (so to speak) that developed into the election-winning, wedge-issue-propounding ideological GOP so aptly described last year in Kevin Phillips’ “American Theocracy.” I suspect that in aftermath of the revelatory 2006 election debacle, DW and other Republicans privately (and publicly) have harangued media executives generally, and at The Post in particular, with relentless fervor about that dang “liberal bias.” That propaganda technique has generated GOP political capital literally for decades: Smite a major mainstream media organization where they’re really sensitive on the objectivity issue (discomfort and discomfit them with reminders about those surveys indicating so many journalists privately vote Democratic), and then, in Pavlovian fashion, they’ll reflexivey bend over backwards to serve as conduits for right-wing rage and overreaching. Confronted finally by the ruinous, diabolical and tangible effect of so many short-sighted, ideologically based and radical GOP policies - defiantly persistent imposition of unproductive tax cuts for the wealthy during wartime, the Iraq war and its spending, Blackwater, health care, neglect of our infrastructure and educational institutions(in Colorado as well as nationally), enabling official corruption exemplified by the treasonous exposure of a CIA covert operations officer for purposes of political vengeance, security policy that has lost the US respect and friends worldwide - Republicans are desperate for an issue, and contriving an “anti-business liberals” mountain from a molehill will do nicely if necessary. There is no plausible standard - either in contexts of current news value or past editorial judgments - that possibly can justify such placement of such an editorial on such a subject. The timing of Gov. Ritter’s order coupled with a publisher’s feverishly unconstrained prejudice against unions provided fertile ground for an attempt at a political propaganda coup. The press really should try to resist being used like this.
Go, go, Dennis Hammond. Keep up the raging ad hominem attacks on those with whom you disagree. Avoid presentation of facts whenever possible and use only inflammatory rhetoric. I finally figured out that Dennis Hammond is a nom de plume for Douglas Bruce. Right?
Thank you Jim and Spencer for speaking the truth. Yes, the Republicans are VERY desperate for an issue to distract us from the disasters of both domestic and foreign policies. Quit your whining Mr. Singleton! But then again does Freedom of the Press belong to he or she who owns one?
Spencer,
What a litany of gobbledegook. Seemingly
like you tried to digest something written
by Paul Krugman and barfed it all
back up. A right wing rager could state
the exact opposite opinion on every issue
you mentioned in every run on sentence.
I guess that’s why it’s called an opinion
piece. Occasionally the press gets it
right.
Hey LHKMAN,
Well, I could bore you with a counter
position on every bit of menutia listed
by Spencer Crona is his very worded
and disjointed disertation but why?
You already know the Right wing Raging
counter opinion on each issue. It’s
been said before since the beginning of
time: There are always two sides to
every argument. The Post recognized that
and in this case wrote for the
conservative perspective. Krugman’s in
town I’m sure he could blather on even
longer than crona about why the Post is
wrong and site even MORE extraneous info.
As for Douglas Bruce he’s freaking Thomas
Jefferson man. If it weren’t for him
and his Colorado Constituion–TABOR the
TAXPAYERS BILL OF RIGHTS (that’s you
LHKMAN) this state would be in a bigger
financial hole than it already is given
it’s insatiable appetite for spending
other people’s money.
Have a good day
By the way LHKMAN I’m just me:
A WHITE WING WAGER—dennis
This was a poorly written personal vendetta, not even worthy of an editorial page, let alone the front page. How sad to see a once great newspaper turning into a pulp rag.
If Singleton’s aim was to discredit Ritter, he didn’t succceed.Gov. Ritter and his wife are a wonderful breath of fresh air in our state.
Growing up in a small town in the 50’s, the newspapers were trucked in daily. One of my younger brothers delivered the Post, the other the Rocky. The super “smart” one who delivered the Post squandered his money and had nothing.
The one who delivered the Rocky soon had $50 in the bank.
The “smart” one who delivered the Post went to CU and colleges in California. He has a stack of degrees in science,etc.and the latest being a Doctorate of Divinity. He teaches at a small college in California.
The other brother who delivered the Rocky went to the School of Mines and obtained a 5 yr. (Sterling Silver)degree in Geology. He took the geology degree to Houston and ended up co-owner of an oil exploration company, living in a gated community with his own boat dock.
I don’t know if there is any morale to this story, other than to say put your money on the Rocky!
It’s kind of amusing, Dennis, how the right wing and the Libertarians morph into one. You both (in Dennis’ case, it’s just one) forget or ignore that government exists to perform functions on behalf of the society, and performing those functions costs money. The political process exists to determine which functions government will perform. The constant anti-tax mantra is disgusting. At least put some thought into the rant before you unleash it on your fellow citizens.
Gotta wonder whether this editorial was a ploy by “Simpleton” to cut costs: First, the paper boots Jim Spencer; then, Diane Carman apparently sees the writing on the wall and gets the hell out; and now, this over-the-top front page editorial appears.
Post Editor Greg Moore strikes me as a pretty liberal guy, coming here as he did from the Boston Globe (where liberalism is a BFOQ). I wonder how Mr. Moore feels about all this. It’ll be interesting to see whether he, and a number of like-minded Post staffers, goes the way of Carman, finding greener grass elsewhere in the coming months. VOILA! Simpleton reduces head count while not having to cough up a dime for severance packages.
Mr. Singleton, if Governor Ritter is Jimmy Hoffa reincarnated, then you’re Montgomery Burns.
I’ll add my comments about the Singleton editorial (yes, nobody else on the editorial board would do such an idiotic thing).
Frankly, I was shocked, but not surprised to hear this kind of right-wing trash talk on the front page of the Denver Post, a paper I have subscribed to for well over 25 years. The paper has become a knock off tabloid of USA Today.
I finally dropped my subscription when they decided to print only “excerpts” from some of the nation’s top columnists right after deciding to publish gossip on the first inside page of the front section.
I wrote to Greg Moore when Jim was let go and predicted Diane Carman’s eventual departure. The paper is becoming a rag, so much as I don’t like the editorial policy of the News, I’ll get that from the NYT and read the Rocky for its otherwise pretty fair content.
But what was said about the Governor on the pages of the post was so untrue and such a gross mischaracterization. After eight years of Bill Owens and his crew I think we’ve found an effective Governor who can get things done, the right things.
Bill Owens, to his discredit, weighed in on the controversy in his usual defensive manner.
I was pretty fed up with the whole debacle.
LHKMAN,
Ok, I’ve thought about it. We have a
government assuming too much
responsibility and performing too
many fuctions for society. And isn’t
that what just about every one of these
arguments boils down to. What each of
us thinks the role of government is?
The Constitutional mandate for the
Federal government is to provide domestic
tranquility and defense from enemies both
domestic and foreign. That’s very basic
infrastructure.
Since Colorado doesn’t
have a military their mandate for
governance is even smaller. Yet we find
both state and federal government playing
an every increasing role in all of our
lives. Basically telling us we can and
can’t do at every waking moment of our
lives. According to the Constituion,
that’s not the role of government. Just
according to you and other socialists
who wish to live in a nanny state is that
the perceived role of government.
By the way I’m a Republican, not a Liber-
tarian.
Well, Hammond, you were doing fine at trying to have a legitimate rational discussion on the issue until you began calling people socialists. I prefer to call you a damned fool. During the part where you were doing fine, I could say that my reading of the Constitution reaches different conclusions than yours. That’s OK. You see the world in simplistic, black and white terms, so it’s not surprising that you have a very narrow view of what’s permissible under the Constitution. You can call yourself a Republican, but I can call you a libertarian - with a small “l”. Your views invariably reflect the Libertarian (big “L”) view of the world. No government except maintenance of a military; no taxes. May your garbage pile up on your front walk.
I don’t know about you but I pay for
trash removal. Left wing people contend
that the Constituion is a “Living,
breathing document which changes with
society and the courts whims. Strick
Jurists (whatever the term is) stick
to the literal interpretations. All I
know is if James Madison or Thomas
Jefferson took a look at the size of
the Federal government today and all of
it’s juristictions they’d PUKE.
I’m sure you won’t see this post in an old column of Jim’s, Hammond, but I got to tell you your latest post that ends with the puking of Jefferson and Madison really demonstrates your inability to expand your thought process. In my democracy, the greats like Jefferson and Madison would recognize that the passage of a couple of centuries has changed a lot since they were writing the Declaration and the Constitution. They were geniuses. They would have adapted along with the other greats of their time. Too bad you still are trying to live in 1787; you’re missing a lot.
I’m sure that Dennis pays his propery taxes and a fee to Waste Management (so no trash build up I am assuming). I am also assuming he pays his income taxes to the federal government, income taxes to the state, petrol taxes when he fills up, sales taxes when he buys something etc. etc. etc.etc…..George Harrison said it best in “Tax Man”…”take a walk, they’ll tax your feet”….come on LHKMAN> We all pay our fair share. There is not a shortage of taxation in our country, regardless of what we are told.>> …and you know it.
Golly, noidea, I just went back to an old column and caught up with your last post on this one. We all pay our fair share? And who determines what a fair share is? No shortage of taxation? Depends on what you want from government. Time for you, Hammond and presumably William Dean Singleton to open your minds and do some thinking instead of merely regurgitating the anti-tax, anti-government mantras of the right wing.
lhkman..and who determines what a fair share is? that would be common sense. At some point it is ridiculous. You seem to want to spend other people’s money at quite a rapid rate.
and LHKMAN, if you care to read what I said..I am not anti taxation. You are a fool, the anti-Hammond. The Ying and Yang of fools…
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